Why is everyone so silent in the game?

[Arazehl]

I keep to my inner circle of friends when it comes to chatting. Too many times I see conversations start up in a public channel and there is always someone that's going to be immature, disrespectful, obnoxious, rude, who thinks they are funny, and always takes it a step too far. That one person that makes you "roll your eyes".

People don't respect a good conversation with mild wit. There is always that one clown in the bunch to ruin a good thing for the rest. So why bother.

[Soge01]

We are the Warrior of Light. Our neck muscles speak for us.

On a serious note, slot of people speak through FC chat, link Pearl's and whispers...whatever its called.

[penguinman]

I know there *are* people out there that talk, but it seems so rare. Are people just shy of talking? Is it a cross-console thing so they can't do it effectively without it taking minutes at a time? Or is this another one of those things that discord effects?

It just doesn't seem alive, even in populated areas where the ambient chatter implies that there's a lot of talking and a cacophony of voices tries to add to what would be the discussions of other players.

What's the reason behind the lack of social interactions?

I think it's the lack of any kind of a general channel. Which can be both a blessing and a curse. Apparently, according to the devs, the Japanese servers are even quieter.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

Don't believe that tripe about people getting easily offended or wanting to be speech police. I have been playing for over six years and I have never seen either example of those behaviours in the game. You seem to be a polite person who knows how to behave around other people. You have nothing to worry about.

Sadly it does happen, though. Just because you haven't encountered it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I was chatting away in party chat with 2 of the 3 teammates in my roulette one day, just random, normal conversation. Talking about what we liked about the instance, favorite jobs, etc. Run going completely smooth. Pace was fine. The talking affected nothing. One of the randoms asked what my favorite healer was, and I said I liked SCH more than the other two because to me, I liked the whole "pre planning" heals and didn't like the reactive nature of WHM, wasn't the healer for me.

Our healer was a WHM, and flipped out at me out of nowhere, saying I insulted their class, accused me of saying they were terrible at WHM, and offended them (Which no one said one word about their play. Why would we? The run was going FINE). They reported me. Nothing happened, because I had screenshots if approached by a GM, but these types of people exist. If they were genuine or a troll, it doesn't matter. I never thought I'd encounter something like that and was completely flabbergasted at it, especially since I like to talk in party chat and BS with people if they talk back. I can do silent runs and just turn on music too, but I'd much rather actually talk to people.

Granted, these types are probably outliers and not the norm, but the fact remains there ARE people like this. Troll or genuine, they are out there.

[Penthea]

Granted, these types are probably outliers and not the norm, but the fact remains there ARE people like this. Troll or genuine, they are out there.

I never said it doesn't happen and I did not mean to come across this way. I am just contesting the idea that these behaviours are common. Some people like to act as if there's some manner of plague of them in the game which makes a huge amount of players be deadly silent out of fear of getting banned. Which is no where near to being true.

Gamers are often introverts, there's no general chat channels, the game provides an easy way to make several private chat channels and discord has replaced game chat for many. These are the strong contributing factors to how the game chat looks. Not this bogeyman of a horde of easily offended malicious players who are actually an extreme minority.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

I never said it doesn't happen and I did not mean to come across this way. I am just contesting the idea that these behaviours are common. Some people like to act as if there's some manner of plague of them in the game which makes a huge amount of players be deadly silent out of fear of getting banned. Which is no where near to being true.

Gamers are often introverts, there's no general chat channels, the game provides an easy way to make several private chat channels and discord has replaced game chat for many. These are the strong contributing factors to how the game chat looks. Not this bogeyman of a horde of easily offended malicious players who are actually an extreme minority.

Ah, apologies. I can understand that viewpoint. I think the bigger problem resides in the fact that it honestly doesn't matter if it exists or doesn't exist, it's that the perception of it is prevalent enough that it clouds people's thinking into believing it's far more common than it is. I know right after the TOS got updated, even though the harassment policy was already in there, many people took it as their queue to lower their heads.

[RobynDaBank]

I've been kind of nervous of party/alliance chats because passive aggression gets to me - maybe that's because I over-think too much, and I have a habit of not staying silent when BS is thrown about. Take yesterday: the tank of a Temple of the Fist group said they skipped the entire story when they entered the instance. The others in my group asked "why?" and the tank responded by saying they don't enjoy the story too much. Enter me and another saying "can't really judge before you play! " at the same time.

In this moment I had my watching partner instantly warn me not to say more, in case I incurred the ire of a report or a catty retort. I gave the WAR a chance and they stayed light-hearted about it, so the conversation ended soon.

Their first pull was nice and big, and I had nearly no problem keeping them up (AST is fun!). They said in chat, "I was a bit nervous there". I took the risk and jokily said "Use Raw Intuition and be fearless, my friend!". They listened to me next pull and it went even better, so I couldn't help throw out a "sick!". And this is where my overthinking began: WAR queried "what's sick?". I gulped, wondering if they misunderstood. "I meant it as a compliment ><" I nervously clarified; but seems I was wrong, because they then asked "I know, but what was sick exactly?".

It doesn't sound like a big deal but I hid my head in my hands for a few moments, embarrassed at myself. My partner was of course saying "told you so" in my ear. I turned off chat in fear and never looked at it again.

I probably screwed up in the conversation in some way. But honestly my partner was right: so much stupid overanalyzing and agonizing over a perhaps harmless remark making the talk not worth it. I imagine there's people like me out there nervous of a confrontation or being unfortunate enough of talking to someone who might just make fun of them. Being quiet is just easier, if stiff and boring.

[Penthea]

Ah, apologies. I can understand that viewpoint. I think the bigger problem resides in the fact that it honestly doesn't matter if it exists or doesn't exist, it's that the perception of it is prevalent enough that it clouds people's thinking into believing it's far more common than it is.

Exactly this.

I know right after the TOS got updated, even though the harassment policy was already in there, many people took it as their queue to lower their heads.

The ToS about what sort of chat is forbidden is vague in places because if the ToS was written to be extremely precise some players would find a subject it doesn't cover, use that to harass people, and then get away with it because the ToS doesn't explicitly forbid it. By not being entirely clear as to what the forbidden behaviour is SE can take action on any behaviour they judge to be bad for the game whether it's something they're already aware that can happen or something they didn't expect to happen.

But some people took the above to mean "oh my god someone can get me in trouble if they get offended that I say my favourite colour is blue!". Though I think in many cases it's people pretending to be concerned about that, and what they're truly concerned about is they don't know exactly what awful behaviour they can freely do. I genuinely think if someone has a huge issue with being worried that anything they say could get them into trouble either have an anxiety issue or they're someone who is fully aware that they often say very offensive things.

[Phaty]

I know alot of social interaction is happening in PMs and linkshells in city hubs. But if you want out in the open interaction you should look into RP houses on your DC. On mine i know of a casino, night club and fight club i goto and there's tons of socializing going on

[Conundrum]

Exactly this.



The ToS about what sort of chat is forbidden is vague in places because if the ToS was written to be extremely precise some players would find a subject it doesn't cover, use that to harass people, and then get away with it because the ToS doesn't explicitly forbid it. By not being entirely clear as to what the forbidden behaviour is SE can take action on any behaviour they judge to be bad for the game whether it's something they're already aware that can happen or something they didn't expect to happen.

But some people took the above to mean "oh my god someone can get me in trouble if they get offended that I say my favourite colour is blue!". Though I think in many cases it's people pretending to be concerned about that, and what they're truly concerned about is they don't know exactly what awful behaviour they can freely do. I genuinely think if someone has a huge issue with being worried that anything they say could get them into trouble either have an anxiety issue or they're someone who is fully aware that they often say very offensive things.

OK...I'm going to say what a lot of people are tiptoeing around.

If the chat turns to anything remotely political and your position isn't 100% hardcore leftwing you will be reported as engaging hate speech (whether it fits any rational definition of "hate speech" or not), but the attacks from the other side don't get the same classification. The way the new ToS update is worded supports that too.

If you comment on someone playing other than telling them good job, you will also often be reported.

Also, as much as most of us dislike Reddit, the advice they give constantly to anyone who gets even slightly offended or upset at something someone said is "report them". Literally that is their advice like 100% of the time.

EDIT: This community loves to scream across the internet about how awesome it is. But anyone who pays attention knows it's basically the "peace of the gun".

People can hate on other MMOs and their toxic communities, but none of them can hold a candle to the passive aggressiveness in this one and the attempts to silence anyone they dislike.